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Roadshow brings alternative-powered vehicles to Athens

The Tesla Model S can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds — and it’s an electric vehicle. As such, it’s economical as well, able to travel up to 265 miles on one charge, at a cost of about 2 cents per mile.

“It is the most efficient way to drive, by far,” said Ben Echols, Georgia Power’s electric transportation program manager, “and not only is it cheaper, it’s also cleaner.”

Echols was one of the many people who drove an electric car to the Alternative Fueled Vehicle Roadshow held Monday afternoon at the Classic Center in downtown Athens.

“We’re helping educate consumers that they can be better stewards,” Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols said. “We’re helping a consumer take their hard-earned dollar and stretch that fuel dollar.”

Vehicles in the roadshow included the electric Nissan Leaf; a gas-and-electric-powered Chevy Volt; natural-gas-fueled Honda Civics and Ford trucks; a 1991 Mercedes that runs on cooking oil; and a propane-powered school bus.

Brian Lovall, a driver trainer for Hall County’s public school system, drove the bus, and said, “They’re very quiet, easy to fuel. They run strong.”

Hall County was the first school system in the Southeast to have propane-powered school buses. Currently, 10 percent of the bus fleet is propane-powered.

“Propane is cheaper than diesel, and it’s a cleaner-burning fuel,” Lovall said.

Also represented at Monday’s event was the Covington-based Snapping Shoals Electric Membership Corporation, which has been using vehicles powered by compressed natural gas since 1998.

“We have 23 dedicated CNGs, and we now have 11 bi-fuel Silverado pickups that we run off of CNG and gasoline,” said Victor Hurst, vice president of line services at Snapping Shoals EMC.

“We researched everything, and we’re an electric company, but we decided CNG would be the best investment,” Hurst said. “Every vehicle that we have that can be converted to CNG to run bi-fuel, and it’s in our plans to do that.”

Tim Echols, who has been an advocate of alternative-fuel vehicles for some time, said they promote air quality and decrease dependency on foreign oil.

“It means we import that many barrels less of oil,” he said. “That helps our trade deficit and helps eventually lower the cost of oil.”

Athens was the first stop for this year’s roadshow, which will visit Atlanta, Dalton, Macon, Savannah, Augusta, Valdosta and Columbus in coming days.

Commenting on the reason for staging the roadshow, Echols explained that it could produce significant and lasting benefits. On Monday, for instance, he noted, “We have the fleet department from Athens-Clarke County here, and if they make a decision that they need to try this, that would be a huge displacement of fuel from gasoline to whatever else they use.”

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